Josine Blok
Biographic Data
| ID | 2789153 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Josine Blok |
| GIVEN NAMES | Josine |
| FAMILY NAME | Blok |
| SIGNATURE | BLOK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Utrecht University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-7383-002X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 42 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 67 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 3 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1994 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Representation in Democratic Athens: Manin’s Principles Revisited
In The Principles of Representative Government (1997), Bernard Manin argues that the means of selection, elections producing representative democracy and drawing lots applied in direct democracy, create fundamentally different kinds of government. I argue that Manin's typology holds firm, but that it needs some modification. First, Daniela Cammack's analysis of the Athenian system for the impact of ‘interest' and ‘accountability' reveals represen…
Drawing Lots on the Athenian Stage
The language of the lottery is pervasive in classical tragedy. numbering in the tens of thousands, fifth-century Athenian audiences shared the mindset and understood the broad spectrum of lottery-related procedures and overlapping evocations and resonances. The discrete themes of the first chapters converge in classical Athenian drama, notably in Aeschylus’s Seven against Thebes. Athenian playwrights used the lot as a narrative device, an idiom, …
Lotteries Divine and Human: The World of the Homeric Epics
The full spectrum of the practices, vocabulary, and values implied in the drawing of lots is apparent already in Homer and Hesiod and was consistent and ubiquitous through the archaic and classical periods. Distributive, procedural, and selective lotteries are manifest both among the gods who draw lots for portions of the world and among humans, distributing booty and catch, selecting soldiers and heroes, dividing an inheritance, and establishing…
Drawing Lots for Polis Office
This chapter charts how drawing lots for the polis offices was introduced and gradually spread in ancient Greece. The first known case was in early sixth-century Athens, where the statesman Solon introduced allotment from preselected, elite candidates. But his innovation had only limited success and was soon largely abandoned. Following a wave of initiatives across the Greek world to increase the political power of the demos around 500, poleis di…
Envoi: Drawing Lots Today: Fair Distribution and a Stronger Democracy
The envoi explores briefly how the practices of drawing lots in ancient Greece support propositions for using the lot in present-day Western liberal states. Taking off more than 50 years ago, these debates are intensifying today due to the urgency of the issues they deal with, a fair distribution of goods and benefits, and improving the trust of citizens in parliamentary democracy and the rule of law. Our historical study of drawing lots in Greek…
Drawing Lots: From Egalitarianism to Democracy in Ancient Greece
This book offers the first comprehensive study of drawing lots as a central institution of ancient Greek society. It reveals how an egalitarian mindset guided selection, procedure, and distribution by lot and how drawing lots was introduced for polis governance, a Greek innovation that may be relevant today. The first two parts (Irad Malkin) explore the egalitarian mindset geared toward horizontal relationships, expressed in drawing lots instead …
Priestesses in the Sacred Space of the Acropolis: A Close Reading of the Hekatompedon Inscription
The Hekatompedon inscription is a heavily damaged, but uniquely impressive inscription of two decrees by the Athenian people of 485/4 BCE regulating the conduct of visitors and cult personnel on the sacred site of the Acropolis. This article offers a new reading of the regulations for the sanctuary’s female cult personnel, mentioned in the text as the priestesses and the zakoroi. Our reading involves a new proposed restoration for a lacuna in thi…
Lektüren
Democracy in Crisis: Lessons from Ancient Athens, written by Jeff Miller
Feasting and Polis Institutions
Feasting and Polis Institutions rassemble les actes d’un colloque du même nom organisé à l’Université d’Utrecht du 16 au 19 janvier 2014. Cet ouvrage vise à comprendre comment deux formes particulières de fêtes — la fête sacrificielle et le symposion — ont émergé et évolué dans le monde grec, mais aussi et surtout comment elles se sont placées au cœur des institutions religieuses et politiques qui définissent la société grecque. Les différentes c…
An Athenian woman’s competence: The case of Xenokrateia
The famous dedication by Xenokrateia to the river god Kephisos and other divinities not far from the city of Athens in c. 400 BC (NM 2756; IG I3 987; IG II2 4547) is a rare example of a sizeable, public ego-document by a citizen woman. Close reading of the iconography of the votive relief, of the dedicatory epigram and the inscribed offering list, and comparison with other private foundations allow reconstructing Xenokrateia’s sense of her identi…
Retracing Steps
Disengaging the notion of ‘citizenship’ from the Aristotelian definition as characterized by ‘political office’, citizenship in archaic Greece may be identified by criteria for membership of the polis as a community and by rules for participation in it. Looking back from the classical era when these criteria were formalized more stringently and in greater detail, in the archaic age we see them gradually taking shape: sharing in common cults, and …
Citizenship in Classical Athens
What did citizenship really mean in classical Athens? It is conventionally understood as characterised by holding political office. Since only men could do so, only they were considered to be citizens, and the community (polis) has appeared primarily as the scene of men's political actions. However, Athenian law defined citizens not by political office, but by descent. Religion was central to the polis and in this domain, women played prominent p…
Debt and Its Aftermath: The Near Eastern Background to Solon's Seisachtheia
Debts were a structural factor in the lives of peasants throughout the ancient world. In Archaic Greece, Solon of Athens took the unique measure to cancel all debts, abolish debt slavery, and bring back those individuals who had been sold abroad. For this innovation, he drew on the tradition of periodic debt remission and liberation of debt slaves by royal decree in the empires of ancient Mesopotamia, about which he may have heard during his trav…
A “Covenant” between Gods and Men: Hiera kai hosiaand the GreekPolis
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The priestess of Athena Nike: A new reading of IG I3 35 and 36
Le décret IG I3 35 met en place une prêtresse pour Athéna Nikè et programme la construction d’un nouveau temple et d’un autel. L’article propose qu’il fasse suite à un décret antérieur inaugurant des sacrifices dêmotelês pour la déesse, accomplis après des victoires militaires. Ce décret « pré-35 » était inscrit sur la pierre qui surmontait la stèle conservée. La prêtresse pouvait entrer en charge dès que la décision avait été prise : elle ne dev…
Citizenship, the Citizen Body, and its Assemblies
This chapter contains sections titled: The Polis as Community: Cult and Descent Participation Assignment of timai: Inequality and Equality Acknowledgments
Sumptuary legislation, Greece
The collective descriptor “sumptuary laws” takes its name from the Latin leges sumptuariae (laws on sumptus , “luxury”) – which refers to a category of laws issued in late republican Rome.
Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, vol. 8
n Contains fulltext :\n 338695.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)\n
Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion
Deme Accounts and the Meaning of hosios Money in Fifth-Century Athens
Comparing the accounts of the deme Ikarion (IG I3 253) with those of Rhamnous (IG I3 247 bis and 253; IRhamnous 181 and 182) and Plotheia (IG I3 258), this article argues that the adjective hosios applied to a fund in Ikarion indicates that this money was dêmosios and to be used in a way pleasing to the gods. The long-standing view that hosios when applied to money means ‘free for secular use’ or ‘secular’ (e.g. LSJ s.v. σιος) is shown to be unfo…
Gentrifying Genealogy: On the Genesis of the Athenian Autochthony Myth
Fremde, Bürger und Baupolitik im klassischen Athen
Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches
Now available in paperback for the first time, this collection of essays by specialists in the field offers fundamentally new perspectives on the poetry, laws, and historical facts associated with the figure of Solon of Athens
Solon of Athens. New Historical and Philological Approaches: New Historical and Philological Approaches
Now available in paperback for the first time, this collection of essays by specialists in the field offers fundamentally new perspectives on the poetry, laws, and historical facts associated with the figure of Solon of Athens
Becoming Citizens. Some Notes on the Semantics of „Citizen“ in Archaic Greece and Classical Athens
7-40 -I JOSINE H. BLOK (Utrecht)Becoming Citizens.Some Notes on the Semantics of Citizen', in Archaic Greece and Classical Athens* 1 Questions, aims and methodsThe emergence of the polis as the prominent form of socio-political life is one of the most important developments of archaic and classical Greece.Its result was a type of society consisting of a group of free inhabitants, who lived in an identifiable territory with some kind of city centr…
The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth
The Early Amazons offers a new understanding of the ancient Amazon myth, situating mythical representations in the realm of cultural history. The first section examines how the Amazons have presented a challenge to views on history, myth and gender in classical mythology from the late eighteenth century up to the impact of structuralism. Topics included are nineteenth-century historiography and the interest in linguistics. The second section shed…
The priestess of Athena Nike: A new reading of IG I3 35 and 36
Le décret IG I3 35 met en place une prêtresse pour Athéna Nikè et programme la construction d’un nouveau temple et d’un autel. L’article propose qu’il fasse suite à un décret antérieur inaugurant des sacrifices dêmotelês pour la déesse, accomplis après des victoires militaires. Ce décret « pré-35 » était inscrit sur la pierre qui surmontait la stèle conservée. La prêtresse pouvait entrer en charge dès que la décision avait été prise : elle ne dev…
Deme Accounts and the Meaning of hosios Money in Fifth-Century Athens
Comparing the accounts of the deme Ikarion (IG I3 253) with those of Rhamnous (IG I3 247 bis and 253; IRhamnous 181 and 182) and Plotheia (IG I3 258), this article argues that the adjective hosios applied to a fund in Ikarion indicates that this money was dêmosios and to be used in a way pleasing to the gods. The long-standing view that hosios when applied to money means ‘free for secular use’ or ‘secular’ (e.g. LSJ s.v. σιος) is shown to be unfo…
Feasting and Polis Institutions
Feasting and Polis Institutions rassemble les actes d’un colloque du même nom organisé à l’Université d’Utrecht du 16 au 19 janvier 2014. Cet ouvrage vise à comprendre comment deux formes particulières de fêtes — la fête sacrificielle et le symposion — ont émergé et évolué dans le monde grec, mais aussi et surtout comment elles se sont placées au cœur des institutions religieuses et politiques qui définissent la société grecque. Les différentes c…
Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth
Classical scholarship played a vital role in the intellectual concerns of early nineteenthcentury Germany. Situated at the crossroads of religion, history, and explorations of the development of the human mind, Greek mythology in particular was expected to shed light on the origins of civilization. In the search for the true nature of myth, the hermeneutic problems involved in historical understanding were intensified. As myth was held to be of a…
Fremde, Bürger und Baupolitik im klassischen Athen
Drawing Lots: From Egalitarianism to Democracy in Ancient Greece
This book offers the first comprehensive study of drawing lots as a central institution of ancient Greek society. It reveals how an egalitarian mindset guided selection, procedure, and distribution by lot and how drawing lots was introduced for polis governance, a Greek innovation that may be relevant today. The first two parts (Irad Malkin) explore the egalitarian mindset geared toward horizontal relationships, expressed in drawing lots instead …
An Athenian woman’s competence: The case of Xenokrateia
The famous dedication by Xenokrateia to the river god Kephisos and other divinities not far from the city of Athens in c. 400 BC (NM 2756; IG I3 987; IG II2 4547) is a rare example of a sizeable, public ego-document by a citizen woman. Close reading of the iconography of the votive relief, of the dedicatory epigram and the inscribed offering list, and comparison with other private foundations allow reconstructing Xenokrateia’s sense of her identi…
Retracing Steps
Disengaging the notion of ‘citizenship’ from the Aristotelian definition as characterized by ‘political office’, citizenship in archaic Greece may be identified by criteria for membership of the polis as a community and by rules for participation in it. Looking back from the classical era when these criteria were formalized more stringently and in greater detail, in the archaic age we see them gradually taking shape: sharing in common cults, and …
Priamos and Bellerophontes
Interpretations of the Amazon Myth in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries
Penthesileia
Preliminary material
Index
The Homeric Formula
Religions in the Graeco-Roman World
Conclusions
Herakles and the Sixth-Century Development of the Amazon Motif
Plates
The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth
The Early Amazons offers a new understanding of the ancient Amazon myth, situating mythical representations in the realm of cultural history. The first section examines how the Amazons have presented a challenge to views on history, myth and gender in classical mythology from the late eighteenth century up to the impact of structuralism. Topics included are nineteenth-century historiography and the interest in linguistics. The second section shed…
Quests for a Scientific Mythology: F. Creuzer and K. O. Muller on History and Myth
Classical scholarship played a vital role in the intellectual concerns of early nineteenthcentury Germany. Situated at the crossroads of religion, history, and explorations of the development of the human mind, Greek mythology in particular was expected to shed light on the origins of civilization. In the search for the true nature of myth, the hermeneutic problems involved in historical understanding were intensified. As myth was held to be of a…
Proof and Persuasion in Black Athena: The Case of K. O. Muller
Proof and Persuasion in Black Athena:: The Case of K. O. Müller Josine H. Blok Non tali auxilio. Virgil, Aeneid II, 521 When in 1824 the German classical scholar Karl Otfried Müller (1797–1840) set down to write a review of Champollion’s first Letter to M. Dacier (1822), he was profoundly interested. 1 For several years he had been working on Egypt, and as he told his parents in 1820, “I have come to love Egyptian antiquity so much, that, if I we…
"Proof and Persuasion in "Black Athena: The Case of K. O. Muller
When in 1824 the German classical scholar Karl Otfried Muller (17971840) set down to write a review of Champollion's first Letter to M. Dacier (1822), he was profoundly interested.' For several years he had been working on Egypt, and as he told his parents in 1820, have come to love Egyptian antiquity so much, that, if I were not constricted by the schedule of my classes, I would have set myself to the decipherment of the hieroglyphs, which I wou…
Phye’s Procession: Culture, Politics and Peisistratid Rule
In his account of Peisistratos' tyranny, Herodotos relates a notorious incident. \nAfter the tyrant had been expelled by the combined efforts of his \nopponents Megakles and Lykourgos, the renewed rivalry between the victors \nset Megakles to enter into an agreement with the erstwhile loser. In order to \nimpress the Athenian population, Megakles and Peisistratos dressed up a tall, \nhandsome woman named Phye as the goddess Athena by donning her …
Women in Herodotus' Histories
Women play a salient role in the historical world as Herodotus portrays it. They partake in all activities that form the body of the 'Histories'
Becoming Citizens. Some Notes on the Semantics of „Citizen“ in Archaic Greece and Classical Athens
7-40 -I JOSINE H. BLOK (Utrecht)Becoming Citizens.Some Notes on the Semantics of Citizen', in Archaic Greece and Classical Athens* 1 Questions, aims and methodsThe emergence of the polis as the prominent form of socio-political life is one of the most important developments of archaic and classical Greece.Its result was a type of society consisting of a group of free inhabitants, who lived in an identifiable territory with some kind of city centr…
Solon of Athens: New Historical and Philological Approaches
Now available in paperback for the first time, this collection of essays by specialists in the field offers fundamentally new perspectives on the poetry, laws, and historical facts associated with the figure of Solon of Athens
Solon of Athens. New Historical and Philological Approaches: New Historical and Philological Approaches
Now available in paperback for the first time, this collection of essays by specialists in the field offers fundamentally new perspectives on the poetry, laws, and historical facts associated with the figure of Solon of Athens
Fremde, Bürger und Baupolitik im klassischen Athen
Gentrifying Genealogy: On the Genesis of the Athenian Autochthony Myth
Deme Accounts and the Meaning of hosios Money in Fifth-Century Athens
Comparing the accounts of the deme Ikarion (IG I3 253) with those of Rhamnous (IG I3 247 bis and 253; IRhamnous 181 and 182) and Plotheia (IG I3 258), this article argues that the adjective hosios applied to a fund in Ikarion indicates that this money was dêmosios and to be used in a way pleasing to the gods. The long-standing view that hosios when applied to money means ‘free for secular use’ or ‘secular’ (e.g. LSJ s.v. σιος) is shown to be unfo…
Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion: Orality and Literacy in the Ancient World, vol. 8
n Contains fulltext :\n 338695.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access)\n
Sacred Words: Orality, Literacy and Religion
Sumptuary legislation, Greece
The collective descriptor “sumptuary laws” takes its name from the Latin leges sumptuariae (laws on sumptus , “luxury”) – which refers to a category of laws issued in late republican Rome.
Classical Antiquity Studies (32 works) · History (22 works) · Art (18 works) · Political science (14 works) · Law (12 works) · Philosophy (12 works) · History (11 works) · Literature (10 works) · Philosophy (9 works) · Classics (8 works)